“We have a moving aperture that opens and closes on scenes like a curtain. Because the play takes place in the expressionistic camera of the mind.”

Peter Hinton

Director

Lady Windermere’s Fan is the name of the fascinating comedy-drama by Oscar Wilde the Shaw Festival is presenting this summer as one of the major shows of its 2013 season, but, in the hands of director Peter Hinton, you might be tempted to give it another title: A Tale of Two Sittings.

We’re talking about artist’s sittings, that is, with the definitely contrasting, but strangely complimentary styles of James McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt providing the key with which Hinton plans to reveal the treasures of Wilde’s first successful play.

“The first thing that struck me about the script,” says the former artistic director of the National Arts Centre’s English Theatre Company during a break in rehearsals, “is that, while it had many of the flourishes we associate with Wilde’s work — the epigrams, the platitudes — it also had a deeply moving human drama underneath it.”

Without falling prey to that most loathsome of contemporary artistic misdemeanors, the spoiler, it will probably suffice to tell you that the play is set, of course, in London’s high society in 1892, the year of its creation.

Lord and Lady Windermere seem to be a happy couple, but their existence is beset by rumours about a Mrs. Erlynne, whom gossips claim is having an affair with Lord Windermere and draining him of money in the process.

The actual truth is nothing of the sort and the play swirls a whole series of relationships together, with the one between mother and child at its very centre.

When researching the period, Hinton, who always likes to find a strong visual analogue to express his views of a show, made the discovery that Whistler lived right across the street from Wilde when the play was being written.

Whistler, a flamboyant personality in his own right, lived by the slogan “art for art’s sake,” which Wilde could have adopted as his own motto. He also became famous for having created a work called Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1, more commonly known as Whistler’s Mother.

The grim woman sitting in profile on a chair was, indeed, Whistler’s mother, pressed into service at the last moment when the original model failed to show up. This unknown woman became one of the most famous mothers in the history of art.

“Still, if I were Whistler’s mother, I would wonder why he called my picture Arrangement in Grey and Black. It says a lot about their relationship, doesn’t it?” asks Hinton, in a mischievous mood.

It points to the kind of upbringing Lady Windermere received at the hands of the woman who raised her: her father’s eldest sister. And it stands in sharp contrast to the kind of natural, nurturing maternal influence that Hinton finds in Cassatt, the artist he places in opposition to Whistler.

“The time of her greatest fame was when this play was being written, and, although she didn’t live in London, her work was immensely popular there and would have been known to Wilde’s audience. She painted literally dozens of portraits of mothers with children, of all ages, with a warmth that sets it, emotionally, years apart from Whistler.”

The use of these artists as inspiration in the look of the play helps Hinton set the stage for the revelations about motherhood that lie at its core.

“I wanted to reflect the journey from Whistler to Cassatt and from painting to the photograph. We actually have a moving aperture that opens and closes on scenes like a curtain. Because the play takes place, after all, in the expressionistic camera of the mind.”

There are yet more levels to the play. One consists of the wonderfully paradoxical discovery, in Hinton’s words, “that we always believe truth is the best thing, but the play says sometimes it’s better to keep a secret. There’s a subversive, ambiguous side to Wilde as well.”

To capture that, Hinton adds another level, a “mash-up,” leaning heavily on the music of Canada’s own Rufus Wainwright.

“He felt like a contemporary Oscar Wilde to me: a wit and a dandy, but someone with great melancholy as well.”

If all these elements seem to swirl giddily together in the artistic stratosphere, that’s just want Hinton wants. After all, this is the play that gave us one of Wilde’s most telling epigrams:

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Four fave shows to see at Shaw

Our Betters: Somerset Maugham’s witty tale of American golddiggers trying to snare rich British husbands is given a sparkling production by Morris Panych, with costumes to die for and a cast worth cheering.

The Light in the Piazza: Adam Guettel’s bittersweet musical about a love against all odds that happens during an Italian holiday is sure to break your heart as it thrills your ears.

Faith Healer: Irish playwright Brian Friel’s script is his version of Rashomon: three different looks at a man of religion with three of the festival’s best actors — Jim Mezon, Corinne Koslo and Peter Krantz — in the cast.

Arcadia: Is Tom Stoppard our generation’s answer to Bernard Shaw? Some say he’s even better and this play will give you a chance to decide as it juggles time and space and the human heart with dazzling wit.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.